Nemesis
by The Threat
Summary: This story picks up where I had left off with 'Seeing is Believing'
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Most characters used here are mine. Otherwise other characters, as well as some of the locations and situations, are created by Tim Kring.

Note: like my previous story, some events of this story will take place some time before the events of the first "Heroes" episode

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**It is believed by many artists, that fiction is a way to escape the real world. It brings their minds into a realm where things go exactly the way they want it to go, and gives understanding to whatever happens there. Whatever happens in those worlds is concidered normal, dispite the idea that things occur there that cannot happen in the real world. In other words, give sense to the world. But if evolution causes the world to look like a work of fiction, does that mean that the world makes less, or more sense?**

Dudenpark Brussels, Belgium

Olivier and Aline were still expressing their love for each other. Not only did it help to keep Aline warm, given the season they were in at the time, but also made her relise that Olivier likes her exactly the way she is, and therefor would even do anything to keep her that way, which includes her to keep her special powers. After a long kiss, Olivier stopped.

"...Listen to me, Aline! I..." he started.

"No..." Aline interrupted, "I know... you don't..."

She got interrupted by the sound of a phone. They looked at each other in surprise.

"It's not mine!" Olivier stated.

"I don't have mine on me!" Aline claimed.

Olivier looked at Ashley's corpse. He let go of Aline, and searched Ashley's clothes. He found her cell-phone, then turned to Aline, asking: "Can you make me sound like her through the phone?"

Aline raised her shoulders, as opposed to nodding 'yes'. Olivier answered the phone: "Hello?"

"How's it going?" a voice said.

"How's what going?" Olivier asked, suddenly relising he shouldn't have said that.

"That Oliver guy of yours!" the voice replied, "Does he completely trust you now?"

It suddenly hit Olivier that Ashley wasn't doing anything out of her own, she was working for someone else. But if that's the case, then that would mean that Aline, nor he, were safe now. Again he had to do some quick thinking, and replied to the voice: "Er... yeah! I er... I made him believe that his girlfriend tried to use his powers for her own benefit, and would afterwards just drop him like a brick!"

After he said that, Olivier relised he had just litterally translated a Dutch expression into English. Now I'm busted, he thought to himself. Then the voice spoke to him again: "Say, you sure took your time to answer the phone!"

"Er... yeah... I" again he had to improvise something, "I had to be sure I'd be out of his earshot first."

"Are you sure?" the voice asked.

"Yes!" Olivier replied, hoping he didn't sound demanding when saying it.

"I'll send you some backup anyway, just in case." the voice stated.

Before Olivier could say anything, the guy on the other side had allready hung up.

Now Olivier was sure that it wasn't just one person working for one man, but an entire organisation. If not, some sort of mob. In any case, he knows that he nor Aline are safe now.

"On second thought," Olivier suddenly started, "let me have your powers anyway."

"What?" Aline couldn't believe she was hearing this, "Why? Who was that on the phone? What made...?"

"Do you trust me? Enough?" Olivier interrupted her to ask this.

Aline did trust him, but since she had no idea what this was all about she hesitated to answer: "... Yes! But..."

"Then trust me on this!" Olivier continued, "You're much better off not knowing about any of this. And... for your own safety, your powers aren't safe with you."

"I can handle..." Aline started, but Olivier wouldn't let her finish.

"Aline, listen to me! This goes way deeper than we think! I... can't bear the thought that you...! Anyway..."

It became clear to Aline that Olivier didn't want the powers to his own benefit. He looked like there was something bothering him, so she asked: "What's the matter?"

"... Just... Just know that..." he couldn't put it into words, but somehow managed anyway, "Just know that when I take your powers, we may never see each other again!"

Aline didn't understand. But knowing that the girl that laid there, bleeding, was prepared to kill her, she suddenly understood how serious this situation really is. Tears started to run down her face when she relised it. Despite her sudden reluctancy, she stretched out her hand anyway, ready for Olivier to take out of her whatever he wants, needs, or must.


	2. Chapter 2

Saint-Francis Psychiatric Hospital, Alost. One week later

A hospital like many others of it's kind. It had patients dwelling around, all looking as if all thought, wether they be happy or sad, good or bad, had been robbed of them. One patient in particular was watching something on a TV-screen. It was reporting something that had somehow caught this particular patient's interest.

The reporter on screen said: "One week has passed since the incident, and the authorities still have no clue as to what happened. The only witness they have, Aline Maertens, is still in a coma, and there is still no knowledge as to their prime suspect's whereabouts, Olivier Vandeput."

This patient had watched the news of the last week with distinct interest. Everytime they mention the name of their prime suspect, a smile crept upon his face. This patient knew him personally, and somehow was pleased to hear about what kind of trouble he was in. All that helped to compensate for his currant state: the idea that the guy who brought him in, is in deep trouble now, and likely on the run. As he was thinking as such, a voice called out to him.

"Jonas! Stop looking at the screen, and come here!"

The patient, Jonas, smirked. This woman who spoke to him honestly believed he just looked at the screen, but didn't pay attention to what was being said. This woman will regret thinking as such once he got out of here, he thought to himself.

Primatech Paper Odessa, Texas.

A dark figure was at the site, but at a safe distance. He looked at the company's logo, then looked at a card that he had in his pocket. A bussiness card to this company, that belonged to a Ashley Jameson. So this is... was her base of operations, the figure thought to himself. He looked at his watch. It read 2:21 PM. He suddenly also read the watch's brand name: SYLAR. People come up with the strangest names for brands, he thought to himself, some strange taste of things that Jameson had. He had taken her watch, and some of her I.D. cards, and with the use of Aline's powers, he made the watch look like a male model, and the I.D.'s to be his. Though, because he's on the run he had to change his name into Oliver Grimm. He choose the name Grimm, because that's exactly how he felt after what he did to Aline. He didn't know what it was that he did exactly. He wanted to drain her of her abilities, but as he did as such he drained her of a lot more than that, and put her into a coma. Why is it that taking the powers from Jameson worked flawless, and taking Aline's worked disasterously? For that matter, why can he control the powers he takes, but not his own? All he knew for certain right now is that he wouldn't have had to do this if it weren't for the people of this company he's at right now. If it weren't for them, he wouldn't have had to take anything from her for her own protection. Then again, perhaps she'd have been better off if he didn't do anything because he felt he had to be a hero. These people, who or whatever they are, have caused enough damage. It is time for him to pay them back. Especially now that Aline has become an eisier target for them.

Oliver was about to come out of the shadows. But just before he did so, he relised he shouldn't be sticking out that much. He wore dark clothes, a black jersey being part of the outfit. Not quite a smart thing to wear in a hot area such as Texas. Then again, now that he has Aline's powers, he shouldn't be too worried about being seen either. He used her powers to become invisible, and got inside the building.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital in Alost, Jonas had somehow managed to sneak out of his room, and into the storage room, along with a vacuum cleaner. In this room, there were lots of chemicals and utensils, as well as some electrical devices that Jonas has been able to smuggle inside. He thought it to be ironic, that he uses everyday equipment to perform what he's about to perform. Apart they seem harmless to everyone, that's why nobody ever wondered why some things are stored in this room. But together, so Jonas knew somehow, they can mean a lot more danger than people give them credit for. He started devising some of the equipment, unraffeled some of the drugs in the room, and used all the utensils as if they were screwdrivers, or other tools of that sort. After about an hours work, he plugged the machine he had put together, switched it on, waited with inhumanly patience for it to warm up, as a smile of utter satisfaction krept upon his face. Suddenly, the machine seemed to be getting short circuited, causing a few exploding sounds. But Jonas didn't care, for the explosions did exactly what they had to.

A nurse, who was on the prowl that night, walked into the storage room. Immediatly she recognised Jonas, and given the electrical sparks that the machine on front of him seemed to cause, the nuse knew that Jonas shouldn't be standing there too long.

"Jonas!" the nurse screamed, "Get away from there!"

But he didn't. The nurse was about to warn him again, but when she did, Jonas had allready vanished into thin air. The nurse didn't understand how this could possibly happen.

About twenty meters away from the hospital, Jonas materialised. He looked around, started to breath heavily from excitement, and screamed of joy: "I'M FREEEEEEE!!!"

His voice faded away, as while he screamed, his machine exploded in the hospital, causing a chain reaction that leveled the entire building with the ground floor. This made Jonas even happier. His machine did exactly what it had to: teleport him out, and destroy the hospital after he's gone. Now he couldn't be happier. That's when another thought occured to him. He will only be truly happy once he got his hands on the guy who got him in that hospital in the first place.

"Get ready, you halfwit!" Jonas said, hoping that somehow his voice would reach that one person, "You'll pay for what you've done to me! You'll be sorry to have ever known me!"


	3. Chapter 3

Oliver went through the security of the building easily, as if they didn't see him. Of course they didn't! But then he spotted cameras. He knew that he wouldn't be seen by the people around him, but would that mean that, those cameras wouldn't? He would have to find another way in. We went out again. There was only one guard at the entrance, whom Oliver knocked down. It's funny, he thought to himself, because there was a time that he wouldn't be able to knock down a guy of that size, and because of that power from that girl, whose name he didn't even want to think of, he might even be able to smash through a brick wall. Suddenly, he relised he still had some work to do. He took off the guard's clothes, and started wearing them himself. One problem he had was that he doesn't know his way around the building. He could take the memory of that out of this guy, but he remembered what happened last time he did that. He will have to improvise his way into the building.

Back in Belgium, Jonas had found his own hide-out. A hard-ware store, of which the owner for unexplainable reasons vanished. Only Jonas knew what happened to him exactly. But it's beneath him to think about what happened to some hard-ware guy. He's only interested in what he sells, for these devices were all he needed to carry out his plan.

Oliver, unaware of these events, sneaked into the building. Since he was wearing a uniform, nobody seemed to care much about who he is. The only problem was that he couldn't find anything that would even indicate that they needed someone like Aline. Unless this plant was about to go bankrupt, he couldn't think of any reason at all. Then again, the voice on the phone explicitely said that he'd send back-up. He wouldn't say such a thing if he were the boss of some paper factory. Would he? After an hour of searching, he nearly figured he was wrong.

"How's it going?" a man asked somebody else.

Oliver looked up. He recognised that voice. It was the guy he heard on the phone. He turned around to look. It was a man with, in Oliver's opinion, weird looking glasses.

"They're still looking for him." the other guy replied, "It's almost like he disappeared of the face of the Earth."

"Knowing his ability, I wouldn't be surprised if he did." the man with the glasses remarked, as he inserted a card into an acces control lock, after which the door opened, leading the two men inside. The door read "Authorised Personel Only". In Oliver's opinion, this was a little too easy. Still, he looked at the card he took from the-girl-without-a-name, and noticed it had a magnetic line on it. Indeed, it was a keycard. But would it be safe for him to use it? He wouldn't want to give away that he's using her card, because then he'd expose himself. But it's for a good cause, he kept telling himelf. This will be one of the many risks he has allready taken so far. He used the card and entered through the door.

Inside, there was a long hall. It looked like nothing at first, until he went a little deeper. He saw that people were being used for experiments. Of what kind, he wasn't sure, only that they seem to hurt people quite badly, and not just physically. What is all this about? If anything, it sure isn't Xavier's school for gifted youngsters, Oliver thought to himself. He needs to see if he can find the guy with the glasses.

"What are you doing here?" the voice of that particular man said.

Now Oliver doesn't need to look for him, for he had found Oliver. He had to improvise again: "Er... I was called that there'd be some kind of an emergency."

"Really?" the man didn't believe him, "And how exactly did you get in?"

Oliver didn't understand this. If there's an emergency, shouldn't a guard at least be able to get in?

"What? Cat got your tongue?" the man asked, "How did you get in here?"

"Er... with my key card?!" Oliver replied.

"How could you have a keycard..." the man asked, "... if you're not an employee here?"

Oliver started to wonder how he'd have known that. Does he memorise the list of employees? If that's the case, this must mean that these people are extremely paranoid. No matter, Oliver thought. As fast as he could, he punched the man in his stomach, and ran away.

While still in agony, the man shouted: "Stop him!"

Real gruards showed themselves. Oliver has allready been exposed as someone who shouldn't be here, so what would anything else matter. He changed himself into the fighting machine, and took down those guards. He ran faster through the halls, running into one guy after another, all surprised to see 'Ashley' turning against them. They should know the whole truth about this, Oliver kept thinking to himself. Eventually, he made it into an archive room. there were computers, and file lockers. He can only guess what those are about. They might even have a file on him somewhere in here. For that, he decided to get in, shut the door, and try to use Aline's powers to make the door indestructible for whatever they'd use. With the protection of his body armour, he could slam his way into the locker, take out all their files, and again with Aline's powers, he managed to make those papers turn into ashes within the blink of an eye. With some more brute force, he cracked open the computers, and destroyed everything inside, just in case he'd mistake the CPU for the hard disk. After his work was done, he needed to get out. But with the people trying to get through the door, there was no way for him to get out that easily. He looked around, and noticed there were absolutely no windows in this room. Therefor, there's no other way out. Suddenly, completely out of the blue, there was another door. Bending reality is usefull, but still scary, Oliver convinced himself. It didn't matter, as he ran to the door, opened it, and stepped through. A little too fast, for this room was at a higher level, which he had forgotten, and he fell down as he stepped through the door. He kept falling, but for some reason, he didn't know it himself, he started making a salto like an acrobat would, and landed with his two feet on the ground. He knew this powers gives him increased strength, speed and agility, but he can't remember to have ever been this agil, even after he had gotten these powers. Now what's happening to him? Much time to think it through was one thing he didn't have. Though the door he had changed was destructible again, the door behind him had disappeared, there were still people on the outside who saw him, and tried to catch him. Quickly, he used Aline's powers to become invisible, and managed to flee from these people.Suddenly, he remembered he had something else to do too. He didn't hesitate one bit to do it either.

An hour later, the people were trying to rebuilt what had been destroyed. The man with the glasses was talking about this to his superiors: "I'm not sure how he managed to breach security either. But somehow, he did!"

"It looks like we'll have to find better ways to secure everything." the superior said, "Like a new entrance."

Before the man could give away an agreement of any kind, another man came up to them: "Mr. Bennet! You're not gonna like hearing this!"

"What is it?" he asked.

"I just came from the surveillance room. The guard was down, and all records of that... that thing are gone." the man replied.

The man with glasses, Mr. Bennet, wasn't at all surprised to hear this, and sighed: "That guy was either very organised, or really paranoid."

"Then there's that other thing too." the man added.


	4. Chapter 4

Outside a diner, Oliver threw a bunch of tapes into the bin. He then decided to get inside and get something to eat. He got in, looked for a seat, took a menu, and started reading it. On the menu he read "Belgian Waffles". Though he didn't come all the way from Belgium to eat something he can find back there too, but decided to go with it anyway. He ordered his waffles, and had to wait for a few minutes to get his order. In the meantime, he wondered wether destroying those files was the right thing to do, or rather the only thing he should have done. There were other people inside, outsiders like himself, suffering pains, and who knows what else. Then he wondered wether he actually destroyed what he thought he had destroyed, given that he did everything in a hurry, he wasn't sure wether these files were all about him, or Aline, or other people like themselves. Next time he'd want to break in, they'd have probably secured the building better, so he can't break in that easily anymore. OK, he could make another door appear in the walls, but that would only alarm the people, bringing another uproar, causing him to get confused, and forcing him to think quick again, and make the same mistake again. Suddenly, the waitress brought him his waffles. He began eating one... but noticed something peculiar about them. They hardly looked like waffles, they didn't feel like waffles, nor did they taste like them. Oliver is not a patriot, but he conciders it an insult to call these Belgian. He wished they'd have a better taste, and when he brings them back to his mouth, they tasted exactly like a waffle should taste. That's when he relised that he had gotten Aline's power, so she'd be safe from people who'd want her for it. He has the means, but now lacks the effort to use it.

"You want some coffee?" a waitress had interrupted his thoughts.

"Er... wha... What?" Oliver needed some time to get his mind back to Earth.

"Welcome back!" the waitress said, "I asked if you wanted some coffee."

"Sure, go ahead." Oliver replied, after which she poured him some. Oliver did not particulary like coffee, he only said yes because he didn't feel like having to explain that to her.

When he finished his waffles, Oliver got up, payed the cashier, and went outside.

Outside again, he started to feel the intense heat again. He remembered it being winter a short while ago, but that was in Belgium. In here it's a little warmer in winter, and to warm to wear a dark jersey. Suddenly, he heard a moan. He turned to direction of which he thought it came from. It was somewhere behind the diner. He went to investigate it. When he reached the (from his view) left side of the building, he found a trail of drops of blood. Weird, he thought, for that wasn't there earlier. Whatever caused this person to bleed, it must have happened only recently. He followed the trail, which lead him behind the building. What he saw wasn't only disturbing, but also unusual. There were two people, one guy and one girl. The girl was in a electric wheelchair, unconscious, hands tied tightly behind her back with a fishing-line, her mouth ducktaped . The guy was lying behind her, bleeding to death. Oliver couldn't see where he was wounded, but judging from the looks of it, he may not live that much longer. The girl suddenly gained consciousness, but seemed to have trouble breathing. He decided to take the ducktape of her mouth, although part of him nearly wished he shouldn't. He shrugged it of, and took it off anyway. The girl tried to say something, but her mouth was too dry. All Oliver could think of to do is tell her to not panic, and that help is on it's way, but that would be a lie. Fortunately for him, he wouldn't have to lie about it, for something grabbed hold of his ankle, and pulled on it.

"P... please... help... her... please..." he only just managed to say.

This was something Oliver remembered to have seen many times in movies, that one person is more concerned about his loved one than he or she is over his or her own. Last thing he expected, in this real world, was to suddenly be part of such a scene.

"Er... sure! Will do! But let go of my leg!" Oliver demanded, nearly forgetting that this guy was allready mortally wounded.

"Pl... ease!" he kept begging him, no matter what.

Because he was on the run , and didn't want anything that could give away his location, Oliver didn't have a phone in his pocket. So there was no way for him to even try and get any help, as long as he was kept in this grip.

"I'd love to help, but you gotta let go!" Oliver persisted, suddenly using both of hands to force this guy to let go.

"Plea... please!" the guy kept begging.

"Let go!" Oliver persisted.

That's when the guy's eyes started to look blank. He stopped talking, and his breath died away bit by bit. It took a while for Oliver to relise what was happening to him. His life was being drained from him.

"No..." Oliver let go of the guy suddenly, "No! I don't want to do this!"

But he was too late. The guy was allready dead. Oliver was shocked. He just killed a guy, because he has no control over his powers at all. Dispite the heat, that got emphasized with his dark clothing, he started to shiver. That's when he heard somebody drop something. He turned to look to his right. That waitress from the diner was taking out the garbage, and has seen him with two people now, in a very weird setting.

Not knowing what else to do, he shouted at her: "You! Call an ambulance!"

The waitress got back inside, to do as she was told. Oliver in the meantime didn't know what to do. Placing himself at a crime scene weren't going to put the odds into his favour. He can only hope that this girl will survive and tell everyone how they ended up where they are. But then he relised that the waitress may still tell the cops what she has seen, and since Oliver had no idea what she had seen exactly, he won't know wether she'd talk good about him either. Then he relised wether she should. After all he did kill this guy. But the way he did it is something he can't tell anyone. The police will probably believe that the bullet killed him, but only Oliver knew better. He could confess to the cops that he killed this guy, but what does he say about his powers?

Suddenly, he heard the girl moan something. He has no idea what she has been through, but hearing her like this, it appeared as though she's hardly aware of her current situation: "Uh... lab... ca... horn-rimmed glasses..."

That last thing made him make his decission. If anything, he should stay away from that man with those glasses. So he can't turn himself in. He used Aline's powers to get himself in the states in the first place, so he can use those same powers to go away too.


	5. Chapter 5

Las Vegas, Nevada.

Oliver ended up somewhere in the middle of a city. If he wasn't mistaken, this was Las Vegas. Nice, he thought to himself. Any place is better than the one he was currantly in, but he didn't know why of all places he'd want to transport himself in such a crowded place. In any event it's better than that last time, when he wanted to transport himself to Primatech Paper, but ended up in the middle of a book store, miles away from Texas even. It took him a week to get to Odessa, and to find the plant. If he has no idea, or so he figured, where to find a particular place, he becomes unsure of himself, wondering wether he'd end up in the right place, and then Aline's powers misinterpret his wishes. Which ever the case, if he knows his geography well, he figures he'd at the very least be somewhere outside of Texas. Nevada, to be more precise. He didn't care much about that. If anything, right now he needed to find a way to control his powers. He wants to be certain that next time he touches someone, that he wouldn't accidently drain him or her of anything. He can only think of one guy that may help him: the man that wrote 'Activating Evolution'. But what was that guy's name again?

Oliver started walking around in Vegas. Nobody seemed to look up as they saw him. He expected them to think "Hey that's that guy that appeared out of nowhere", but it looked like that's either an everyday event, or people plain simply failed to notice. In either case, he hoped that nobody had seen it happen. Suddenly, he remembered something. Before he met the-girl-shose-name-he-wants-to-forget, he had looked up what could cause invisibility. That's when he had bumped in on the title "Activating Evolution". He had even written it down, to be sure he wouldn't forget that title, and to hopefully even find that book. He started searching his pockets, looking for that piece of paper. He found it: the man's name was Chandra Suresh. All he needs to do is find this guy, and ask him for help. Question is, where do you find this guy? The library should be a good start, but do they have such things in Las Vegas? Only one way to find out, Oliver thought to himself. He asked the first police officer he could find.

"Excuse me!" he started, "Is there a library around here?"

The officer didn't laugh, so the answer is yes: "You go West from here, till you find Main Street. Then you go South..."

"Stop!" Oliver interrupted him, because the cop didn't make a clear description to him, "I'm sorry, but could you please speak in terms of going left or right?"

After a somewhat heated discussion, Oliver found his way around, and found a library. He went inside, straight into the non-fiction department, and searched for the book. He knows that books rarely give away the adresses of their writers, but they sometimes do mention in which area they live. Find that much out, then look up their adresses in the phone book. At least, he hopes it would be that easy. He found the book, looked inside the cover, and read that Suresh lives in New York City. The city that never sleaps, Oliver thought to himself, no wonder he could make such a detailed report on how the human genes are evolving.

As fast as he could, he tried to look for some means of transport that would take him to New York. He could transport himself there, but he wouldn't want to risk ending up somewhere else instead. So far, he's been quite lucky on where he got, but luck can change at all the wrong moments. He found a bus that would take him straight to NYC, so he bought a ticket. There was also a train, but the bus would leave earlier, and he wanted to get out as soon as possible. He waited for the bus to arrive, and when it finally did, he got on as soon as he could.

"Travelling all by yourself, young man?" the driver said.

Oliver didn't answer the question. He looked at the driver. He was quite old, had grey hair, a big moustache, and glasses. He also had that typical high-pitched American accent, too high maybe for such an old man. He had never met this man before, but he sure he has seen him somewhere before.

"Are you OK?" the driver asked.

Oliver shrugged: "I'm sorry. For a second there, I thought you were someone else."

"Yeah!" the driver laughed, "Most youngsters I pick up think that I'm Stan Lee. Whoever the hell that is."

Oliver thought it was funny that this man should mention that name, for he thought the exact same thing. But if he were Stan "The Man" Lee, the guy who created Spider-Man, Iron Man,... among other comic book heroes, he probably wouldn't be a busdriver. In ant event, he took himself the first open seat he could find, and sat down, waiting for the bus to take him to his destination.


	6. Chapter 6

While Oliver was on his way to New York City, which took him several days to get there, Jonas was quite active himself. In the hardware store, he could find many things that could help him built whatever he wanted, to get his revenge. Within a few days time, he had managed to built something that looked alot like the machine he used to get out of the hospital. One of the differences between this machine and the original one is that this one will not explode after using it. The other is that it's not meant to transport him from one space into another. Once he had finished it, he didn't hesitate for one second to use it. He activated the machine, let the lights it emitted engulf him, closed his eyes, and let it take him wherever he wanted to be. He smiled as this was happening, as if not at all afraid that something would go wrong. Either Jonas was that confident about himself, or he was plain mad. In either case, even when the machine seemed to start failing, he didn't do anything to stop the procedure. He just let it run it's course.

When he heard the machine's noise no more, he opened his eyes again, and found himself standing somewhere else. Or so he thought at first. He was inside a living room. After closer examination, he noticed that the room's walls were constructed in somewhat the same way as the room he was in earlier. In other words, his plan worked. In the strict sense, he never left the hardware store, he just ended up in a point in time when the store was somebody's home. He made it into the past, as he wished. He got out of the house as fast as he could, and started on his mission.

In this point of time, phone booths were more in use than he's used to. Of course, the year he transported himself to is the year in which he was born, therefor he couldn't have known a time like this. He didn't care, for it made his mission a lot easier. Al he needed to do was to look into a phone booth's phonebook, and look up the adress he needed to know. He found the name Vandeput, or rather, he found hundreds of them. But only one was correct. Remembering in which town this Olivier lived, he looked up in that particular area. It turned out that there were still five more people bearing that name. Two of them were males, so that leaves out three of them. He tore the page out of the book, folded and pocketed it, and went to look for Olivier, who should be a recently born at this point in time. He waited for the night, and then he would strike down.

The closest house had kids who were around ten or twelve years of age. In other words, not the ones he looked for. That left just one house. He broke into that house. The parents appeared fast asleep, so he could easily sneak to the children's bedrooms. Or room, as it turned out that Olivier had brothers and/or sisters. At this stage in their lives it was hard to tell their genders by just looking at them. What was easier however, was to figure out which one of them was the youngest. The one that would have been born this year. He had finally found young Olivier.

"There you are, you halfwit!" Jonas started, "Now you can't do anything to me, can you? You're to dump to even know how to walk up! Oh, wait! I forgot, you never were smart enough for that!"

Jonas laughed at his own joke. He was so proud of himself. Then he continued: "I'll get you for ruining my life like that!"

He pressed his hand against young Olivier's face, keeping him from breathing. It wasn't long before he had awoken the young born, who started swaying his little arms and legs around, but couldn't do anything. Jonas laughed as he saw him struggle like this, knowing that he deserved nothing better. Suddenly, he didn't feel so good. He felt as though something was draining his life away, but he didn't know what. When he looked at young Olivier, he saw that he had his hands on Jonas, as if trying to get it off his face, which resulted into him doing something else instead. Immediatly Jonas drew his hand away. What just happened, he wondered.

"What the fuck did you just do to me?" Jonas asked young Olivier, suddenly expecting him to be able to give him an answer at his age.

The only answer young Olivier could give were a few cries, which annoyed Jonas so much, he wanted to grab the young baby and throw him to the wall. Suddenly, young Olivier's parents, who were awakened by his cries, stepped into the room. Olivier's cries also made the other babies in the room cry as well.

"Who are you?" the father wanted to know.

Jonas did not answer him. He tried to run for it, thinking that he could fight the likes of Olivier's father. The father attacked Jonas, but Jonas pushed him away with ease, and ran out of the room. As he left the house, he could hear the mother scream: "OH MY GOD!!! HE KILLED HIM!!! HE KILLED OUR BABY!!!"

When Jonas had eventually left the house, he relised he did push the father away, and heard him crash into something. He didn't know what it was he crashed into, but judging from the mother's screams, he crashed into one of the cradles, causing the death of one of their kids. Mission accomplished, he thought to himself. He had finally killed Olivier. Now he can return home in ease, knowing that justice has prevailed.

Again, he put a few things together. The only problem was that this time, since he went back into the mid-eighties for this mission, the equipment wasn't as advanced as the ones he used back in the present. Therefor, making a time machine was a little more difficult. But not impossible, for he managed to finish it. And just in case, he made sure that this machine would blow up too after his transportation. Once back into the present, he immediatly started to walk around, enjoying himself. His joy wasn't meant to last though. When he passed a paper store, he saw the headline of today's news: "Police still looking for prime suspect". As he read through the article, he found out that they were still looking for Olivier Vandeput. Either he misunderstood Olivier's mother, or given that there was more than one child in that room he may have accidently killed the wrong baby. He kicked the newspapers out of anger.

"Hey!" the store clerk shouted at him, "You have to pay for that!"

Jonas turned to the clerk and growled at him. The clerk began wondering what's wrong with this guy, then decided to say: "Go away! Or I'll call the police!"

The sound of the word police made Jonas think he should leave, and left as soon as he could.


	7. Chapter 7

Unaware of what Jonas was doing, or had tried to do, Oliver arrived in New York City. Once he stepped out of the bus, he could feel the winter coming back. It was hot in Nevada and Texas, but since New York is up North, it's colder. Not that it mattered to him, for he had to find someone real quick. It was unfortunate that the book didn't reveal anything more specific about where this Suresh lives, so he has his own wits to use to find that out. Knowing that if he asks for directions he won't get to hear anything usefull, Oliver decided to buy himself a street map first. Given that this city is more or less a tourist attraction than anything else, he's sure that he'll find such a shop somewhere. It took him a lot longer than he thought, but he found one. Knowing that he should spend his money on food and water rather than anything else, he decided he should read the map but not buy it. Then again, he still doesn't know what street to look for either. In other words, he should steel a map. He walked into the store, looked for a corner where nobody could see him, then used Aline's powers to make himself invisible. In this state, he took himself a map, and went out again. Just so he wouldn't startle anyone if he suddenly appeared out of nowhere, he decided to remain invisible until he has found Suresh. The only way he can think of to possibly find him, is the phone book. But in these times, now that people use cellular phones, there is no need for phone booths anymore, therefor they are very rare, and therefor he knows one place where he would probably not find a phone book. This will be a long search, Oliver thought to himself. But he started anyway. On his way, he passed a book shop. He stopped walking when he noticed that in the shop's display, there was a copy of 'Activating Evolution'. It looked different from any copy he had seen of this book. He must have found an older version of that book each time. And of course, if an American book is available in Europe it always looks a little different. That was one mistery solved for him, the other was that symbol on the book's front cover. He doesn't immediatly remember, but he's sure he had seen that symbol somewhere before. He shrugged it off, and continued his search.

Back in Belgium, Jonas had returned to the hardware store, trying to devise another idea to get his revenge. He could travel back in time again, but then he'd risk something else to happen again. He can't do anything about Olivier in the past, so he must kill his enemy now, or never. But how? Suddenly he remembered that because of Olivier, there's this girl in a coma. She must have an idea of where he is, or else he wouldn't have tried to kill her, so he thought to himself. That girl won't wake out of her coma anytime soon, so he must somehow find a way to extract it from her mind. Now knowing what to do, Jonas put himself to work.

After a long search, Oliver had finally found Suresh's appartment. He arrived at his door, but for some reason hesitated to knock. He became afraid of what might happen. What will this doctor tell him? What will he do exactly? Not knowing the answer to any of these questions scared him. He started telling himself that those are childish fears, and for the sake of many people, particulary Aline, he must do this. He knocked the door. He heard someone reply, but could understand what he said. This made him uncertain as to wether he actually had heard anyone, or not. Just to be sure, he knocked again.

"Is that you, Gabriel?" a voice inside said.

Oliver had no idea who Gabriel was, but didn't bother to tell this man he's somebody else. He heard him get to the door, so this man will see for himself. The man opened the door, and seemed a little disappointed.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Er... You Chan... Doctor Chandra Suresh?" Oliver asked him, for again he had this familiar feeling with this man, just like he had with the busdriver.

"Yes!?" the man replied, "And you are?"

Given that Oliver had walked around for a long time, he felt he really needed to sit down, especially since there's so much he has to tell this doctor: "Er... can I please come in?"

"Not before I know who you are and why you're here!" Suresh replied.

"You're the guy that wrote 'Activating Evolution', right?" Oliver responded, "I came here all the way from Be... Europe just for that."

By looking at him, Suresh first thought Oliver to be one of those people that would visit him personally just to laugh at him, but his behaviour and the fact that he travelled a long distance made him decide otherwise.

"Very well. Come on in!" Suresh gestured him to come in.

Not hesitating for one second, Oliver stepped in. Suresh shut the door, then said to Oliver: "Follow me!"

He guided him to his desk, motionned him to sit down on a chair that stood before it. Oliver sat down very quickly, in Suresh his eyes it looked like he hasn't sat down in a long time. Whoever this young man may be, he thought to himself, he couldn't have come here just for the fun of it.

"So, er..." Suresh started, "What is your name?"

Oliver was about to give him his birth name, but reminded himself that he shouldn't: "Oli... Oliver Grimm."

"Well, nice to meet you, Mr. Grimm." Suresh stretched out his hand to shake Oliver's, but Oliver kept his hands to himself, afraid that he may do something he doesn't want to again.

Relising that Oliver doesn't want to shake hands, Suresh pulled back his arm: "Very well. How can I help you?"


	8. Chapter 8

Back in Texas, the man with the horn-rimmed glasses was discussing a plan of his with his boss: "... and the Haitian erased that from her memory."

"So she doesn't remember having been here at all? Good!" the boss said.

"No, but..." the man with glasses continued, "she does remember to have seen a guy with a hood. Which fits the description that the security guard gave us."

"And at this moment of the time, with this weather, who'd wear a hood?!" the boss asked, retoricly.

"Also, the waitress at that diner told us about that guy." the man with the glasses continued, "He wasn't wearing his hood, but he did start wearing it as he went outside. Plus, according to her, he ordered coffee, although he didn't drink any. Plus he seemed very tense."

"It's almost as if he acts like an idiot on purpose." the boss decided.

"It was enough for us to give his description to the authorities." the man with the glasses continued, "It won't be long before we find him!"

Meanwhile, Oliver had told Suresh everything. About how he found out about his powers, the people he met, about what he took from them, or at least what he knows to have taken from them. After he had told him all that, he gave a demonstration of the powers he took. Suresh was amazed, but not at all surprised to see any of it.

"Interesting." was all he could say.

"That's it?" Oliver was a little shocked at his choice of words, "That's all you can say?"

"It would be more interesting if you'd demonstrate your own abilities." Suresh suggested.

Oliver, though sitting down, seemed to take a step back: "That I shouldn't do."

"Why not?" Suresh asked, "You seem to have those powers under control, so I'm su..."

"Did you even listen?" Oliver questionned, "I can't control my own powers!"

"That is peculiar indeed." Suresh remarked, "Unless..."

Impatient, Oliver asked: "Unless what?"

Trying to use the simplest of terms, Suresh replied: "From what I heard, you used your powers on instinct. That's why you sometimes took other things from people than you originally intended."

"So?" Oliver still didn't understand.

"You for instance thought it right to exchange one life for another. And acting on your emotions, you switched that girl's wounds for that other girl's health."

"I somehow just knew how to do it." Oliver said.

"Indeed." Suresh replied. "Once you were able to take something phisicly away from someone, you never forget how. But you tried to take the memory from your girlfriend, which is something mental, which you haven't done before."

"And that's why it failed?" Oliver asked.

"That's the only reason I can think of." Suresh answered.

Oliver was quiet at first, but then knew what to say: "That still doesn't answer everything. Why can I control..."

"I was about to answer that." Suresh interrupted, "Deliberately or not, you somehow knew exactly what to do in the right situation. In that same way, it's possible that after you took those girls' powers, you took their memories' about how to control them."

"Now wait a minute!" Oliver discovered a little flaw in that theory, "I thought I couldn't do anything mental just yet."

"I wasn't referring to the memory of the mind, but that of the body." Suresh replied, "You see, when someone had, for instance, chicken pox, he would later not have it because the body remembered to have had it allready. In that same sense, their bodies had adapted themselves for their new found abilities. Perhaps it's that adaptation that you took as well, and therefor your mind suddenly knew how to use them."

Oliver thought about that theory before stating: "Sounds like a stretch to me."

"In science all things are impropable, but not impossible." Suresh said.

In a way, that statement made sense, but Oliver still wondered: "OK, but I still have no idea what I took from Aline."

"Neither do I." Suresh replied, "However, from what you told me, I can only guess that you took her soul."

"Her... soul?" Oliver had some difficulties to believe that.

"Like I've allready told a friend of mine," Suresh continued, "If their is such a thing as a soul, it would be your brain. All your thoughts, all your actions, all your memories, they are all stored in your brain. Therefor..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but Oliver still couldn't believe it: "So I'd have taken her... soul? But if... shouldn't I have started to act like her? Remember some things she knows? Shouldn't I..."

He stopped. He remembered that he acted a little different lately. When he thought that bus driver to be Stan Lee, and after that driver asked if he were OK, in normal circumstances he'd have said "No, nothing" and walked away, but said something else instead. Also, when the waitress asked him for coffee, he said yes dispite himself. He never drank coffee, but perhaps Aline does. Then there was that salto he did when he escaped from that building back in Texas. Did Aline do gymnastics at some point of her life, and therefor knew how to make a salto? So this entire time, he acted like someone different, and he didn't even know it.

"Something wrong?" Suresh asked.

"This gives 'being with someone an entirely different meaning." Oliver stated, then shrugged it off: "There's still one question. Why me? Why do I get these powers that I can't control?"

"The universe works in the strangest of ways." Suresh replied, "I can't answer you why YOU have those powers, but I can answer why anyone would be given them."

"Which is?" Oliver was anxious.

"You can take everything from people with those powers." Suresh explained, "You can take away their memories, their powers, their broken bones,... using mystical terms, you take away people's burdens."

"Burdens?" Oliver couldn't believe he heard this, "So instead of having one person walk around with a broken leg, I can take that from his, and walk around with it instead?"

"Or you can give it to someone else." Suresh suggested, "Like you have allready done once."

Oliver rested his elbows on Suresh's desk, and allowed his head to rest upon his arms: "This is a little to much to bear."

"Best thing I'd recommand you to do is practise your powers on animals." Suresh finally said, as he got up, "This way, you can practise without risking to hurt any innocent people.

"Or making guilty ones stronger." Oliver said sarcasticly.

"Before you do that, when was the last time you took a bath?" Suresh asked.

It hadn't occured to Oliver how long it has been since his last time: "Er... I had been on that bus for who-knows-how-long, arrived here in the States about a week prior..."

"And you never thought it necess..."Suresh started.

"I needed to save my money for food and water!" Oliver reasoned, "I couldn't risk to make money appear out of thin air and then being accused of counterfitting! So I couldn't afford to stay in a hotel! On top of that, I didn't even dare to..."

"It's all right." Suresh said, "Since you've come a long way just for answers, you can take a bath here.

Though he seemed speechless at first, Oliver did say: "Thanks."

"I can even wash your clothes if you like." Suresh added.

Oliver seemed all right with it, so he immediately asked: "Where's the bathroom?"


	9. Chapter 9

Sure enough, Oliver could've used Aline's powers to clean himself. But for some reason, sitting in a bathtub was quite relaxing, something that felt too good. Why would he use some powers if if he can do pretty well without them? When he was getting out of the tub, he wondered why he began thinking like that. Usually he just takes a bath because he needed to be cleaned, but to relax? That was thought that had never occurred to him. Then he figured they weren't at all his own thoughts, but someone else's. As he was about to put on some of Suresh's clothes, which he (Suresh) had left for him as a substitute for his own outfit, he wondered why, if Aline is indeed inside of him, then why hadn't she started to appear before him? All her thoughts, experiences, memories are inside of him, so why wouldn't she? Then he figured that such ideas are typical for Battlestar Galactica-esque stories, not the real world. Then again, after everything he's seen and/or done, who's to say what's real anymore? He shrugged these thoughts of, and began focussing on something else.

He left the bathroom. He wanted to go to the front door, but got startled as somebody else was in the appartment. A man, likely end twenties or early thirties, with short black hair, wearing a long coat. There was something vaguely familiar about this man, but that wasn't the first thing that came to mind

Not knowing what else to say, he asked: "Who are you?"

The man appeared surprised to find Oliver there, but somehow found a way to not show. He answered: "Sylar."

The name sounded vaguely familiar, but instead of figuring out where he heard it before, Oliver asked what he really wanted to know: "What are you doing here?"

"Right back at ya." Sylar replied.

Oliver was taken aback because this guy remained so calm. He tried to do the same thing: "I... I was consulting the doctor!"

"Funny." Sylar said, "I came for the exact same thing. But luckely, I found something else instead."

He took a few steps closer. Oliver wasn't entirely sure wether this guy could be trusted. He appeared surprised to find someone in the appartment, but didn't seem displeased.

"Why won't we go for a walk while we wait for him?!" Sylar suggested.

Oliver needed an excuse to not go: "Er... Why not... I guess. Le... Lemme just go get something."

"Whatever you need." Sylar said.

Not entirely sure what to make out of that reply, Oliver went back into the bathroom.

He closed the door behind him, and stood with his back against it. He doesn't know what to do now, especially since he didn't know wether to trust that Sylar guy or not. Suddenly, the door opened itself with a heavy force, and knocked him on the other side of the room. Oliver tried to get up, as he saw Sylar stand in the door opening.

"You look like a broken man." he said, as he moved closer, held Oliver by his throat, and up against the wall, "Lemme fix you!"

What he did then wasn't entirely clear to Oliver. All he knew was that Sylar raised a finger, pointed it to his head, and then he started to feel pain. Still afraid of using his own powers, Oliver allowed his right fist to transform, and punched Sylar with it. Once he was down, Oliver took his chance to get out of the appartment. He made it into the living room, but tripped over something. He fell flat on his belly, and his face. He felt that his left hand hit something on the small living room table before hitting the ground, but wasn't entirely sure. He tried to turn while still lying down. And when he did so, he found Sylar right behind him, likely the cause of his tripping.

"I said I was only gonna fix you!" Sylar sounded less calm this time, "Now, I don't think I'll be that friendly with you! You bastard!"

This was something that Oliver couldn't understand. Sylar wants to kill him, and Oliver is the bastard? Suddenly he relised why he's thinking that, while he must defend himself. He raised his hands, but suddenly he heard something clash nearby, after which something kept his hands to the floor, and caused him terrible. Oliver quickly looked, and saw that knives had pinned his hands to the floor.

"Try that again now!" Sylar dared him, as he moved closer again.

Curiously, Oliver didn't feel anything on his left hand. With all ease, he raised his hand, and punched it against Sylar's knees, knocking him down. Once Sylar was down, Oliver still knocked him in the face, to make sure he'll stay down. He wanted to releas his other hand, but as he did so, he noticed something peculiar about his left hand. The idea that a knife had penetrated it, and he didn't feel pain in this hand wasn't weird enough. It appeared as though his hand was made out of black plastic, and have buttons attached to them. It almost looked like his hand had become a T.V.'s remote control.

"What the...?" Oliver had no explanation for this one. It didn't matter either. He first needed to release his right hand. Doing so caused him pain, but at least it's released he kept telling himself. With that hand, he tried to take the knife out of his left hand. When that was done, he shook his left hand. After a few seconds, his hand became normal again. At the same time, a remote control, with a hole in it, dropped to the floor. So the remote control got damaged instead of his hand. Oliver looked at the table he thought to have hit earlier. He must have hit that controller when he fell, and somehow merged with it. Question is, since when is he able to merge with things? This question he asked himself as he tried to get up. Once he was up, something pushed him away.

"So... you can do that too!" Sylar said, slightly surprised, but still amused, "Let's see how you'd do with a T.V.!"

He picked Oliver up, and threw him to the T.V. screen. Oliver could only hope that whatever he did with the remote control would happen again. Sylar witnessed Oliver's head touching the screen, and then disappear into it completely, like the rest of his body. Sylar was displeased. Whoever this guy was, he had powers unlike anything he has encountered so far, and that wasn't a great deal of many. Then again, at the same time he was pleased that he's gone. Or else, had he destroyed the T.V. screen, he'd have some explaning to do with Suresh. But now he's relieved of that.


	10. Chapter 10

In the laundry room of that building, a woman was taking care of her laundry. As she was about to check, she passed by one washing machine, of which she noticed it was washing mainly dark clothes. Funny, she thought, for she didn't know there was anyone in the building who wears that type of clothes. She didn't care, and turned away. Suddenly, that machine stopped. This sudden happening surprised her. She turned back to the machine, only to find that the dark clothes were gone. Vanished into thin air. She rubbed her eyes and cleaned her glasses, just to be sure she saw this right. When she was done with that, she saw some grey and green clothes in the machine instead. She makes a mental note to lay off the cafeine for a while.

Outside the building, in a back alley, there was a bum. Since his arrival in New York he had seen many things. What he saw that time was one of the fiew things he's never seen. The electric box of the building somehow exploded itself open, revealing a young man in dark wet clothes, a black jersey being among those clothes. This young man got up, though it looked like staying in a box for so long had made him lose all his sense of balance. Plus the fact that his clothes were wet seemed to make them a little heavier to wear, therefor making it hard for him to move forward. He put on his jersey's hood as he was about to pass a lamp post. What the bum saw then was a little too weird for his brain to accept. It was almost like seeing a guy on a TV-screen walking from a before-picture into an after-picture. Before he passed the lamp post the young man was wet, and after he passed it he was dry, though still desoriented. The bum suddenly relised what he'd need a TV for if wine can make him see such things in real life.

Oliver tried to put all things together. A man came into Suresh's appartment, and tried to kill him with the excuse of him being broken. A fight is what came after, in which it turned out that Oliver can suddenly merge himself with things. Problem was that this guy had done something to him that caused a nearly unbearable headache, so he could not think about what happened back there. He himself found it a miracle that he could even start to think about going to the laundry room, pick up his clothes, find a way out of the electric system, and dry his clothes in the blink of an eye.

"Encore!" a nearby bum called.

Oliver looked at the bum. By the looks of it, the man was drunk, so he'd hardly be any nuisance later, so Oliver thought. This was a case of common sence, which required no deep thinking, so his headache didn't get any worse. Still, Oliver needs to go to a hospital, and fast.

He walked out of the alley. At a distance he could see Sylar, or the man with the weird name as Oliver had a hard time remembering "Sylar" moving away from the building. Good, Oliver thought to himself, he's gone. From Oliver's point of view, Sylar went to the left, so Oliver went into the opposite direction. His only hope was that he'd find a good enough person who'd help him get to a hospital.

Back in Belgium, Jonas had allready managed to forge a device. All he needed to do was test it. He found a rat in the basement, who became his test subject for his latest invention. He attached the rat to some kind of a cap, made to fit a rat, which had wires connecting it to something Jonas wore on his head. He activated the machine, and thought of a question to the rat. The rat didn't think of an answer, so either the rat can't think, or the machine is a failiure. No matter, Jonas thought, for he has all the time in the world to find the right equipment and start over again.

In New York, Oliver had managed to find a hospital. They took care of his hand, as well as his headwound. As they were doing so, he wondered wether it would not have been better to take away the wounds with Aline's powers, but he was afraid that doing so would give litterally a killer headache. He thought he'd better not risk it... until he was given the bill.

"I'm sorry!" Oliver started to the male nurse who gave him the bill, "But what exactly did I do have to pay seven hundred dollars?"

"Among other things, you had me assist the doctor." the nurse replied.

Oliver couldn't understand that HE has to pay the nurse for this: "Does it make sense to you that I have to pay you to help me?"

At that moment, the doctor came in: "You either pay us, or explain that to the judge, Mr Grimm!"

Not knowing any other way out, Oliver decided: "Well, I choose to explain the judge how you run things."

"Suit yourself!" the doctor replied, "Although this is the way it's run in every hospital in the country. Didn't you know?"

Oliver did not know what to say. The doctor could tell, and ordered the nurse: "Escort him to his room!"

The nurse did as he was told. Oliver was brought into a room, where they had locked him up. What neither one of them knew was that he'd use his new found ablility to merge himself with the electric lights in the room, and find his way into the electric systems and out of the building again.

Somehow, being in those systems allowed him to feel less physical pain, helping him to figure out how he may have gotten this new power. Is it possible that the man he killed back in Texas had this power? If so, it would explain why he lay behind the electric wheelchair, seeing as there were easier ways to move it without too much physicall labour. It would also explain why he hadn't tried to untie his girl friend and then run away with her. Whatever these two were running from, they had to do it fast, so he merged with the chair and took off. Question still remains, what happened to them before he met them? Come to think of it, what happened to the girl? Suddenly he relised that there are more urgent matters for him to take care of: he must warn Suresh about Sylar!


	11. Chapter 11

Oliver never relised how complex an electric system can be until he was in one himself. It was easy to get lost in New York City, but the town's, as well as the entire world's, wired networks are a lot worse. He was somewhere, but didn't know if it were either a jolt of electricity or some kind of signal. Before he knew it, he got himself inside the cyberspace marvel that is internet. It was possible that at moments he had become an e-mail, but he didn't know it until he was send and recieved. The recieving end, however, was something that he never expected to be one. Usually, an e-mail is send from one machine to another, only to be read by the person for whom the mail is meant. Oliver had never known that that person could recieve a message directly, without the use of a computer, or anything like it. This confusion of his only got worse, as that person whom recieved him didn't know what was happening either. So that person's confusion suddenly met with Oliver's, whom was exhausted after a long trip through cyberspace. With a last itch effort, Oliver managed to become a solid human being again. He fell onto a wooden floor. Suddenly, his headache came back, as did the pain in his hand. His body seemed to feel all the mental exhaust that Oliver had only seconds before. The fact that he didn't know what has happening exactly, made his head ache more. He heard a voice, but couldn't understand what it was saying. But judging from the sound of it, he figured it was a female who spoke. Once he figured as much, he had lost all energy to stay conscious, and fainted.

He had no idea how long he has been in cyberspace. He could have been travelling for days, but had no way of knowing the time. During that time, Jonas had his hands full on something else. And it would seem that all the hard work had started to pay off. He tested created a machine through which he'd mentally ask somebody a question, whom would in turn answer him back, also mentally. Jonas took great pride in his work. He believed that if it would work on a not-intelligent animal, such as a rat, it would certainly work on a human as well. Especially if it's someone that was friends with the one he's targetting. It was his opinion that only someone as halfwitted as he is could possibly be friend, otherwise it would be impossible.

With his machine in his backpack, he went to the hospital where he'd find Aline, according to the newspapers. He walked inside, looking for the right person. He spotted a man in a long white jacket, who must be a doctor. He waited for him to stop talking to the other people. Once he had done so, he walked into Jonas's direction. Acting as a hysterical man, he ran to that doctor.

"Doctor! I need your help!" he pleaded.

"Er..." the doctor was surprised, "You have an appointment?"

"I haven't got the time to make one!" Jonas kept begging, "Please! Would you please listen?!"

The doctor looked at his watch, then replied: "Well, I have about five minutes. Come with me!"

Jonas followed the doctor to his office. The doctor entered first, then Jonas, who closed the door behind him, after which he took off his backpack.

The doctor turned to face Jonas: "So, how can I help you?"

Jonas swung his backpack, which hit the doctor hard on his head. Other than the machine, which was perfectly protected for such things, his pack contained bricks, which hit the doctor, resulting to him lying in his office. According to Jonas, the doctor is unconscious, but he didn't check wether the doctor was at all alive, nor did he seem to care. He stripped the doctor from his jacket, took his I.D. tag, upon which he glued a picture of himself, and started to look like an employee in the hospital. He used the doctor's briefcase to hide his machine, and hid the doctor behind his desk. Now Jonas felt secure that his plan won't fail.

He went to the desk. He looked specificly at the employees's nametags. There was one young woman, whose tag read "Trainee". This one probably doesn't know all the doctors yet, so she wouldn't be suspicious when there seems to be a new doctor in the hospital. He marched up to her.

"Good evening." he started at her, "Could you tell me where I can find Aline Maertens?"

The trainee looked up at him, surprised to see him, but kept it to herself: "Aline Maertens? I thought the doctor has allready checked her!"

"I was told to go see her." Jonas reasoned, "Now where is she!?"

There was this tone he used which sounded frightening to the trainee. She was a little frightened, but she looked for what he asked him anyway.

Once he was told where to find her, he immediatly went to the room. There were no visitors, so she was alone. This couldn't be going better, Jonas thought to himself. He went inside, gazed upon Aline, lying there, completely motionless. So pretty, and so blonde, Jonas thought. He was the type of person that would easily believe urban myths, such as the idea that blonde girls aren't particulary the smartest people alive. No wonder she was friends with the Olivier, or at least that was Jonas's opinion. Nevertheless, he did what he came for. He took the machine out of the briefcase, put one part of it on his head, and the other onto Aline's. Once he activated the machine, he immediatly asked the most pressing question.

"Where is your halfwitted friend?" he asked her mentally.

Much to his surprise, she didn't answer him. Either she can't think at all, or she somehow failed to notice how halfwitted her friend is. She's definately a natural blonde, Jonas thought to himself. He rephrased his question.

"Remember your friend? The one who has put you into a coma? Where is he?"

Again, no answer. Perhaps, he thought, his machine was still adjusted to the way a rat thinks, which is much more different than a human. Like changing the frequency to a radio, he adjusted his machine. Hopefully, he would find an answer this time. But he didn't. He kept adjusting, until he'd finally get some kind of an answer.


	12. Chapter 12

Meanwhile, Oliver was lying in bed. He didn't have a fever, he was only exhausted. He had no idea of anyone else in the room either. Nor did it matter, for where he was at that moment, was a place no one escapes, until one wakes up. In other words: he was dreaming.

In his dream, Oliver was walking through a long tunnel, straight towards the light at the end. Here, he wore almost the same clothes as he did in the real world, save for the fact that his T-shirt was red instead of grey, and he wore a long black leather trenchcoat, as opposed to the black jersey. Midway through the tunnel however, something jumped at him. He turned to face his jumper, so he could grap him before hitting him, and took him down to the floor. Oliver looked the creature up and down. It looked like a housefly, human-sized with paper wings, four legs of which two for the arms and two to stand on, incredibly muscular, and with huge red eyes. Though he looked like a man in a suit, he was obviously a hostile creature.

"I suppose this is the moment I should say 'Transform'!" Oliver said, as he suddenly changed into the fighting machine, and started fighting the Man-Fly, in the same fashion as he had seen one of his favorite heroes fight such monsters before. In the struggle, he managed to fight the Man-Fly out of the tunnel, upon which it vanished, as if it was never there to begin with.

"Nice suit." a voice said, "Where did you get that?"

Oliver turned around, to face a hooded man, whose face was only partly visible. This man shot electricity out of his hands, which only narrowly missed Oliver. He changed back into his human form, after which he allowed fire to come out of his hands, and burned the hooded man. Though his clothes burned, the body turned into some kind of light, which sped itself into the sky. Oliver, knowing he could do this, allowed his body to be lifted from the earth beneath him, and flew after the light.

Mid-air, something stopped him. And suddenly, not only did he wear his real-world clothes, there was no more sky, nor any ground to fall onto. There was nothing! Exept for the touch of someone's hand on his arm, and a voice that spoke to him.

"Olivier!" the voice said.

It was a girl's voice, which Oliver recognised immediatly. He turned to see the girl to whom to voice belonged: "Aline...?"

She smiled, though slightly. Oliver, or Olivier as Aline called him, wrapped his arms around her. Though Aline knew there were more urgent matters to take care of, she too wrapped her arms around him, for she missed him just as much as he missed her.

"I... I thought I would never..." Olivier started, in Dutch.

He couldn't finish his sentence, but Aline knew what he wanted to say. But she had something else to say, and started to him in Dutch as well: "Olivier! As much as I'd love to catch up, there is very little time!"

Olivier was surprised to hear this: "What do you mean?"

"Come with me!" Aline urged him, "I'll explain on the way!"

She grabbed his hand, and dragged him out of the nothingness they were in.

Suddenly, they were somewhere that looked like a hospital. Olivier didn't recognise it, although he did have the impression that he's been spending a lot more time in the hospitals than he's used to.

"Er... is this...?" Olivier started.

"Yes." Aline answered before he finished, "This is the hospital I'm in."

"What are we doing here?" Olivier asked her.

"Hello, little bimbo!" a voice called.

"Duck!" she whispered, as she pushed him behind a desk, and ducked right after him.

The voice kept calling: "I know you're here!"

Olivier heard the voice, which sounded vaguely familiar to him.

Whoever the voice belonged to, he came closer. When he was right in front of the desk, he called: "Come out! And tell me where I can find your halfwitted friend!"

From the moment he said 'halfwit', Olivier knew who it is. There's only one person he knew that would use that word the whole time. He waited for this guy to walk a little further away from the desk. The guy added: "I know you're too stupid to know anything, but I do know that you know where to find him!"

Olivier had enough of that guy's talk. He got up, walked in front of the desk, and said: "You have no right to call her dumb!"

The guy's back was turned at Olivier when he said that. He turned around to face him. And for the first time in at least five years, Jonas and Olivier were facing each other again.

Jonas laughed: "Aaah... you finally decided to show yourself. Didn't you, Halfw..."

"If you'd at all know what that means, you wouldn't call me that!" Olivier interrupted.

Jonas repeated what Olivier just said in a mock tone, after which he replied: "Do you know what it means yourself? It means you're just..."

"It's better to be a halfwit, than a no-wit!" Olivier wouldn't let him finish his sentence.

Jonas laughed again: "Do you really think you've won?"

This Olivier couldn't understand: "Won? I wasn't aware we were competing in anything."

After repeating what Olivier said, again with that mock tone, Jonas wanted to say something before Olivier added: "And around you a little to old to act like a parrot? What the hell is the matter with you?"

"Me?" Jonas sounded surprised, "You're the one that came to our school, acting all halfwitted, and the teachers didn't seem to relise it! They just..."

"Define 'halfwitted'!" Olivier interrupted.

"I know what it means!" Jonas bit back, "You're just too..."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Olivier cursed, "What are you doing here anyway!? You're supposed to be at that institution!"

"Wrong!'' Jonas shouted, and for the first time he sounded angry, "You should have been there! You tried to kill me! Twice!"

Every next thing Jonas said made no sense to Olivier whatsoever: "Twice? I remember doing that only once, and even then it was by accident. I'm supposed to be halfwitted, but you can't even count!"

Jonas laughed: "I goddamn can count! You're just to halfwitted to remember the first time!"

Olivier sighed: "What the hell makes you think you're so much better than I am?"

"Everyone is better than you are!" Jonas reasoned.

"Perhaps you didn't hear me well!" Olivier said, and continued before Jonas could repeat that, "What makes you think YOU are better?"

"Only that I'm here!" Jonas claimed, "I can make machines that can do this! I made this thing to see in that bimbo's mind where you..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Olivier had allready run like a rhino towards Jonas, and tackled him.

"You have no right to call her a bimbo!" Olivier shouted at him.

Though Jonas was in pain, he could still manage to repeat what Olivier said, then added: "Such a halfwitted talk!"

"It's a lot more than you'll ever say." Olivier remarked.

Suddenly, without touching him, Jonas pushed Olivier up against the wall.

Aline, meanwhile, could hear every word that was being said. And everytime Jonas used the word 'halfwit', she only grew more angry. She didn't just want to sit down, hiding somewhere, she wants to be part of the action.

Olivier was held up against a wall. He relised that this was just a trick of the mind, for people can do anything inside their own heads. This way he figured that if Jonas could use telekisesis in here, he must be able to do the same. He tried to stretch out his hand, but something kept him from doing so.

"Surprised?" Jonas laughed as he got onto his feet, "What I did requires some thinking! And you, you Halfwit, can't think!"

"Maybe he can't, but I can!" a female voice sounded.

Jonas turned to see Aline. She merely looked at him, and he flew away. He hit a door in the wall behind him, which flew open after he had hit it. Jonas himself fell down, lying motionless in the hole that was made by the open door. After that, there was nothing that kept Olivier against the wall, so he fell down.

He tried to breath again, and asked Aline: "How did you do that?"

"Because we're in my head." Aline answered, "As well as his!"

Olivier's facial expressions were enough for Aline to understand that he didn't understand her, so she explained: "He has somehow connected his mind to mine. He thought he could find you by looking inside my head, that's why he connected our minds."

"Okay..." Olivier seemed to understand now, "But why can't I do anything?"

"Because you're not in your own mind." Aline continued, "As soon as I knew my body was in trouble, I wanted you to come and help. You wouldn't believe how afraidally rocksick that guy is!"

"Believe me! I know how sick he is!" Olivier replied, after suffering from two twitches at the same time, "And can you believe I missed hearing you say 'afraidally' and 'rock'?"

Aline smiled. But not for long, for Jonas appeared to have recovered his strength, and got back up.

"So you can think at all?" Jonas sounded surprised, "So dumb b..."

"Oh, shut your pie hole!" Aline yelled at him.

Olivier looked at her surprised. Not only did she say that in plain English, she also said something that actually made sense in English. He began wondering if, like he started to do things she can in real life, is she starting to learn the things he knows?

"I've seen Olivier looking down on people before!" Aline continued in Dutch, "Yet he has the decency to leave them alone! If there's someone he doesn't like, he doesn't want to be near them! He pays them enough respect by leaving them be! But you... you must murder a doctor to get to someone you don't like!"

"Nobody likes him!" Jonas replied, "I'm thinking it's weird that nobody else has tried to kill him! He must go to an institution!"

Olivier sighs, but before he could say anything, Aline spoke: "The fact that you got in one yourself and he didn't prooves something else!"

"If this were a written text, I'd wonder how many exclemation marks are being used here." Olivier stated.

"Oh really?!" Jonas said, in reply to what Aline told him, "Well he can't even put on his clothes right!"

Aline turned to look at Olivier, not noticing any truth to what Jonas just said. She continued: "I don't care what your problem is, but neither one of us has time to deal with you! Just go away!"

"I think I'd rather stay!" Jonas replied, as he made a pole appear between Aline and Olivier, and some rope to wrap around the two of them, restraining them to the pole.

"Play a little with the two of you..." Jonas continued, "While I..."

He couldn't finish his sentence, for something appeared behind him, wrapped it's arms around him, and dragged him inside the room to which the open door led. Olivier couldn't make out the face of whoever grabbed Jonas. When the latter started to struggle however, the face became visible every second.

"Isn't that... you?" Olivier asked Aline.

"In a way!" Aline replied, as she was trying to get the ropes off her.

The other Aline snapped Jonas's neck, and marched herself to Olivier and the original Aline. As she untied the two of them, Olivier noticed that this Aline didn't seem to express any emotion. In other words, she isn't a duplicate of herself that Aline just wanted to be around.

Once the two of them were free, Olivier asked: "Who or what is she?"

Before Aline could answer, Jonas had allready attacked the other Aline.

"Thought a broken neck could stop me?" Jonas laughed, "In here? You're really dumb!"

"Let's go!" Aline urged Olivier.

"But what about...?" Olivier started, but Aline wouldn't let him finish.

"Let's just go!" Aline kept urging him, "Right now, the only one who can help is that woman you're with!"

"What are you...?" again Olivier couldn't finish his sentence, for he disappeared from this hospital and reappeared in his own head.


	13. Chapter 13

Oliver woke up, breathing heavilly. His face was all sweaty, though he didn't do much of physical labour. Whatever his mind went through must have felt traumatising for his body, for it sweated like crazy. He couldn't even see the woman that was taking care of him, except for another fuzzy picture.

"Are you all right?" the woman started, in English, "That must've been some dream you were hav..."

Oliver didn't let her finish. If she is somehow able to recieve him as if he were an e-mail, then somehow she must be able to send one too, he thought to himself. With his left hand, he grabbed the woman's face, somehow used his power to use hers, to send a message to the hospital.

At the desk, where Jonas had asked where he could find Aline, a notice appeared on the screen. The young woman, who told Jonas where to go, looked at the screen. The notice said in Dutch: "WANTED.", "Jonas Schildtknaep", "Mental patient", "Extremely dangerous!!!".

The young woman looked at the picture, and relised: "Isn't that the doctor I had... Oh my god!!!"

Immediatly, she dialled the number on the phone, to reach security.

In the room, Jonas's machine had started to go haywire. Sparks started flying around, the machine started to catch fire, causing him a great deal of pain. Jonas broke his connection to the machine. He opened his eyes, only to see Aline, still lying in her bed, and not having moved one inch. The only difference was that the machine, that was supposed to meassure her pulse, started to make one long monotone whostle. Jonas looked at the machine's screen, only to see a flat line.

"OH NO YOU'RE NOT!!!" Jonas screamed at Aline, thinking she can hear him, "YOU'RE NOT GONNA DIE ON ME JUST YET!!!"

Suddenly, people bursted into the room. They were security officers, of which one asked: "Jonas Schildtknaep?"

"NO!!" Jonas shouted out before relising it, "I'm doctor... De Lombaert!"

The fact that he had to look at his own I.D. tag to know his name was enough for the officers to know that the answer is yes. The man who asked for the name, clearly the leader, raised his stick, and the other ones followed his example.

"Oh no, you're not!" Jonas protested, as he tried to make a run for it.

Unfortunately for him, the officers blocked the only escape there was from the room. He couldn't get passed them, as they started to beat him up.

"What are you guys doing?" a doctor, whom just arrived at the scene, started, "This girl needs medical attention!"

"You do what you must, doc!" the leading officer said, "And we do what we must!"

As they continued arresting Jonas, the doctor ordered his nurses to take whatever steps necissary to save Aline's life.

Meanwhile, back in the States, the woman had no idea of what Oliver just did to her. All she was sure of was that he had send a picture of some guy into her head, added some text, and send it to a hospital in some far away country. On top of that, he fell unconscious again. She felt that he isn't the strongest guy he had ever met, if he can pass out this easily. At first she had other reasons to take care of him, but suddenly it looked like he genuinely was in trouble of some kind. She looked at his neck, even though she had allready checked it. She scratched her own, where she had a scar consisting of two black parallel lines, although they didn't really itch at the time. Whoever this guy is, she thought to herself, he's special too, and he needs help. When she relised as such, she suddenly recieved a message, stating... actually, she had no idea what it read, for it was in a language she didn't know. She decided to write it down and ask the guy what it's about when he wakes up.


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning, Oliver opened his eyes slowly. He sat up, and rubbed his eyes. He remembered what happened earlier, though he had no idea if it happened this very day, or the day before, or even longer ago. All he knew for a fact is that a high school bully had somehow got out of the institution, and is now after him. He could only hope that Aline is save, and that the hospital's security has taken him in custody. Suddenly he relised he had used his own powers again. Like that time with that other girl, it seemed to have worked perfectly well, for this woman wasn't at all lying on the floor next to the bed, either in a coma or dead. Out of this, Oliver could draw only one conclusion: his powers are emotionally controlled. They work best unders certain circumstances. Now that he knows that much, he knows exactly where to begin when he practices on using them.

He looked around. Apart from the bed he was lying on, there was a table with a mirror and some make-up equipment. He also spotted a closet, of which the door was wide open, revealing one or two dresses. There was another closet with open drawers as well, but all the clothes that could be found in there were a female's. In other words, this woman he ended up with lives by herself. She couldn't be that bad a lady either if she let him sleep on her bed. He decided to get out of bed and look for this woman. She seemed to have respected his privacy too by letting him sleep with his clothes on, she only took off his shoes. Onces he relised that, he decided to look for them before leaving the room. That wasn't much of an easy task as he thought at first. This woman had put his shoes with hers, and she seemed to own some protective boots like he wore himself, making it hard for him to distinguish his shoes from hers. Of all people, he ended up at a tomboy. He sighed at that thought, upon which he relised his throat was very dry. Once he had found his shoes, he put them on, left the room and looked for something to drink.

It didn't take him that long to find the kitchen. At the same time, he found the woman who took care of him. She was having breakfast. When she heard him coming, she turned to look at him.

"You're awake." she sounded nearly happy, "I was wondering when you'll get up!"

Oliver wished he could say something, but given the state of his throat, he'd rather not try to talk.

The woman seemed to notice he wanted to say something, but for some reason he didn't, so she asked: "Do you understand me at all?"

Oliver, though feeling slightly offended, nodded and motionned that he needed a drink.

"Knock yourself out." she said, after which she pointed to the fridge. As Oliver went to get something, she continued: "I was afraid you wouldn't understand me. I mean, you made me send a message in a language I don't know, and I even got a reply in that same language."

Oliver looked back to her. She slipped a piece of paper over the table, and added: "How did you do that anyway? And how did you even get into the network in the first place?"

Since Oliver didn't drink anything yet, he didn't answer any of those questions. He looked at the piece of paper. Everything that was on the paper was handwritten. Whatever she recieved in her head obviously can't be printed, therefor she had to write it down. He read.

_Dear sir, madam_

_First of all, our staff wishes to express our gratitude because you helped us..._

The letter went on like that for a while. Oliver skipped most bits, until he reached the bit that he wished he wouldn't have to read.

_That man had killed a doctor, and a twenty-year-old coma patient. But thanks to you, he wasn't able to..._

Oliver had read enough. He reread that sentence though, even read to the end of the lettre, giving some kind of an explanation that would suggest he may have misunderstood what he just read. But he didn't misunderstand. Whoever send this didn't mention the name of the girl, but since Jonas was keeping himself busy with only one coma patient, there couldn't be any other that the sender would have meant. Oliver began shaking. His grip on the paper tightened every second.

The woman seemed to have noticed, for she got up and laid her hand on his shoulder: "What's wrong?"

At this moment, Oliver didn't want to be touched at all, even if it was a comforting gesture. He hit her hand away, breathing heavily. She immediatly took a step back, after which he tryed for the front door. He made it as far as the door that lead out of the kitchen, but for some reason, he didn't have the energy to go any further. He fell down to his knees, bended over, leaning on his two arms. If he were hydrated enough, he'd have cried. Last time Aline died, he was there to exchange somebody else's live for hers. But now... he can't go to her, he doesn't have anything to give her, and bringing her back after her official demise will do her more bad than it will do her good. There's nothing he can do now. The very person he tried to protect from one danger, died by the hands of another. By now, many have died because of him. That idea didn't make him feel any better.

The woman, meanwhile, relised that the message gave him bad news. The fact that he reacted the way he did wasn't much different from how she reacted when she lost a loved one. She approached him nonetheless.

"So it was bad news after all." she started as she got closer.

Oliver merely turned to look at her. Even if his throat wasn't dry now, he felt like he can't talk anymore. It's like Aline's death took his voice away. As if not expecting him to say anything, the woman continued: "If it's any concelation, I've lost both my mother and grandmother when I was young."

Oliver didn't bother to listen to any more of the things she was about to say. She continued eitherway: "Did you lose someone because of some guy with horn-rimmed glasses?"

There's that again. He met a guy with funny glasses, shortly after that he met someone who mentionned "horn-rimmed glasses", who was with someone as special as he is, and now he's with someone who mentionned the same thing. This can't be coincidence.

"Well, you don't have that scar on your neck, so I don't think he has tempered with you yet." the woman continued.

The sound of that surprised Oliver. He turned to look at her again. Once he had his eyes set on her, she showed him. He recognised that scar. That girl, from whom he took the ability to change into a fighting machine, she had that same scar.

"That guy made me what I am now. And I guess by now you know what that is." she added.

Oliver had an idea about that. He even had a joke at the ready to tell when he wakes up, but now he doesn't feel like even thinking it.

"You want to get back at him too?" she asked him.

Oliver didn't particulary hold a grudge against that guy, but if he said no he'd have to explain everything to her, which he couldn't.

"But if you're gonna fight him," the woman continued, "you should seriously work out more!"

Oliver tried to get up. This gesture alone made the woman relise that she's doing a good enough job on comforting him.

"I've been in the army before, so if you'd like, I could help you built up some stamina.

Though silently, Oliver agreed. He didn't know where else to go, but knew that if he'd meet with Jonas one of these days, or even meet that other guy in New York again, he'd best be prepared for the worst. Oliver nodded, after which the woman smiled, though slightly, as if she's not used to smiling herself.

"Everyone in town knows me as Samantha." the woman said, "But you can call me Hana. What's your name?"

Oliver looked for his wallet. When he found it, he took it out and showed Hana his I.D.

"Oliver." Hana read, "Very well. You want some breakfast?"

Though he didn't feel much for eating right now, he did so anyway, having no idea what to expect from here on in.

**There's not one story in the world that talks about a hero, without the mention of a villain. A nemesis, if you will. Somebody that is the exact opposite, and yet in so many ways similar to the hero. Even if one does not want to know the other, their meeting is innevidable. And the encounter of both will decide the future of either their loved or hated ones, or even the entire world.**

**THE END**


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